Get my jointer working.... one of these days.

[Paul K. Johnson]

I've mentioned my jointer in other threads and I still haven't gotten to making it serviceable yet. I just have a question about jointing technique.

If you are jointing a board that's bowed do you put the convex side up or down? As a thought-exercise I can see doing it either way is logical but I'm sure one way is better than the other and having never even used one of these machines I really have no idea.

Oh, and I have a Veritas jointer plane on order just so I can put off fixing my Craftsman. :)

[Mel Fulks]

Not clear to me if you mean edges or board face (facing). If facing the convex side should be on the machine. Because many times removing wood there will make the piece straighten from stress relief as well as wood removal. So where it matters the piece will ultimately be straighter because you are actually straightening both sides by removing wood from correct side. This only appears in print written by guys too poor to be sued over someone else's carelessness. The technique does not always work ,but it NEVER makes the problem worse. Not so with concave side down. When jointing the edge of a board that will be ripped narrower the best looking edge is machined

[Paul K. Johnson]

Either really but I was thinking about the face. But boards can be bowed in multiple directions - like every 2 x 4 ever made, for example.

I see your point about choosing which edge to joint. Thanks!

[Andrew Hughes]

It really depends on the board I might choose one side over the other Beacuse of the grain direction or a knot.
Sometimes the ends get the first cuts and they meet in the middle.Sometimes i start a flat in the middle and work it out toward the ends.
Either way the machine needs to be set up right so your not fighting it.

[Mel Fulks]

When a board bow direction changes ,the best course then is to saw into two (or three) pieces at the points of direction change before facing them.

[Jeff Duncan]

The most common technique is to have the bow facing down so that you remove the ends of the bow first. This is also the easier method for someone new to the jointer to learn. Mel is correct though that facing the other way is a better technique in terms of getting flat boards, however it can be tricky to get the technique just right as the board can be rocking on the table if you don't know how to control it. So you should go with what your comfortable with....at least in the beginning.

good luck,
JeffD

[John K Jordan]

This may be helpful when discussing how to deal with different types of warping:

363843

JKJ



If you are jointing a board that's bowed do you put the convex side up or down? ...

[Paul K. Johnson]

Thanks for that. I just learned something new. I thought a crook was a bow as well. So in my original post I was really more concerned with an actual bow and then a crook. I have a few ways to get rid of a crook without using a jointer at all but the bow is more troublesome in that there are only a few ways to handle it and most of those are jointers of one type or another.